Going to the beach, either at the ocean or at a lake, is a common and beloved pastime for families. However, trips to the beach often present challenges to families with young children, particularly with respect to the safety and comfort of the children. Specifically, young children who have not yet learned to swim, or who are weak swimmers, should generally not be allowed to play in waves or rough surf. Further, for much of the year, although air temperatures may be pleasant, water temperatures remain too cold for young children. This is particularly true along the Pacific Coast of California. Nevertheless, few children want to go to the beach and not play in the water. As such, it has become popular to bring a portable swimming pool to the beach, filling the pool with ocean or fresh water, and permitting the child or children to bathe or swim therein. These portable pools are well known in the prior art and typically are inflatable or molded from plastic.
Such prior art portable pools are cumbersome, take up significant room in the family's vehicle, and tend to be unstable in the sand. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a portable wading pool for use at the beach which is easily transportable and stable when in place at the beach. Prior art portable pools also generally fail to address the fact that, when filled with cold ocean water, they take considerable time to warm up to a temperature which would be comfortable for small children to bathe in.
Some prior art approaches to solving the problems of transportability and stability have focused on positioning a rubber or fabric pool in a hole dug into the sand. However, each of these prior art approaches suffer from various instability and inconvenience problems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,402, entitled, “Portable In-Ground Pool,” issued to Devino on Mar. 16, 1999, discusses a portable pool for beach use which employs an inflatable circumferential ledge which is secured into the sand utilizing stakes. Several disadvantages of this prior art pool are the fact that it must be inconveniently staked down and inflated to try to achieve stability. However, it is likely still unstable and prone to deformation of the pool and collapse of the sand sidewalls, or to having the stakes pulled out of the sand when the pool is filed and/or children enter and exit it, due to the weight of water and children on the sides and bottom of the pool, all of which could lead to failure of the pool fabric, leakage of water, causing falls of children entering or exiting the pool, and causing undue amounts of sand to fall into the pool.
Published Patent Application No. US 2007/0248414 A1, entitled, “Method and Apparatus for Making a Pool,” was filed by Ralph Fratianni on Apr. 20, 2007, and was published on Oct. 25, 2007. This published application discusses an apparatus for forming a pool including a panel of waterproof material supportable by a surface of a concaved area of sand and at least one sleeve or pouch coupled to or formed in an outer edge of the material, the at least one sleeve or pouch capable of holding a weighting substance and preventing an entire outer edge of the material from being relocated by the wind. Disadvantages of this prior art pool include instability and a tendency to have deformation of the pool and collapse of the sand sidewalls, when the pool is filed and/or children enter and exit it, due to the weight of water and children on the sides and bottom of the pool, all of which could lead to failure of the pool fabric, leakage of water, causing falls of children entering or exiting the pool, and causing undue amounts of sand to fall into the pool. Moreover, the described sleeve or pouch would appear to be difficult to load and unload with weighting material that is readily available at the beach, namely sand.
Published Patent Application No. US 2012/0023655 A1, entitled, “Portable Swimming Pool for Beach Use,” was filed by Jeffrey Junquet on Jul. 26, 2011, and was published on Feb. 2, 2012. This published patent application discusses a portable swimming pool for use at the beach formed from vinyl or other flexible waterproof material comprising a circular base and a side wall that extends upward from the base and tapers outward as it extends up. To use it, a user digs a hole and unfolds the pool into the hole. The Junquet portable swimming pool, discussed, also includes a sand apron extending outwardly from the edge of the side wall, which can be laid out on the surface of the sand next to the hole, and then covered with sand, which allegedly provides stability. Disadvantages of this prior art pool include instability in the interface between the pool and the sand, a tendency to have deformation of the pool and collapse of the sand sidewalls, when the pool is filed and/or children enter and exit it, due to the weight of water and children on the sides and bottom of the pool, all of which could lead to failure of the pool fabric, leakage of water, causing falls of children entering or exiting the pool, and, due to the sand apron laying flat on the surface of the sand—and then be covered with a layer of sand—having undue amounts of sand to fall into the pool as children enter and exit it.
Thus, there is a need to be able to have a portable wading pool that that is stable, with respect to both wind and shifting sand, is able to easily allow children to climb into and out of the pool, while withstanding the rigors of children climbing into and out of the pool when filled with water and not filling with spilled sand. Additionally, a portable wading pool that warms water quickly for use with cold ocean water is needed and preferable.